David Bruckner’s The Ritual is a harrowing blend of fierce and folksy horror, but also comes with a tingle of Fomo. How, you ask? Track back to 2007, when Bruckner teamed with Dan Bush and Jacob Gentry to dial-in their shared narrative The Signal (three directors, three “transmissions”). Between then and The Ritual we’ve seen two Bruckner visions in the form of (fan favorite) anthology segments – “Amateur Night” (V/H/S) and “The Accident” (Southbound) – yet no solo project. Quite simply, The Ritual is too tight and polished for a “feature-length debut,” but that’s what it *technically* is. Genre fans, we’ve been robbed of boatloads more Bruckner these past years (case and point: where the Hell is Brucker’s Friday The 13th).

Throughout writer Joe Barton’s adaptation of Adam Nevill’s novel, we follow four friends who take a hiking “mancation” through Northern Sweden. Suggestions like Ibiza,...